1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of message processing, and more particularly, to facilitating communication between disparate information management systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The efficient exchange of information and connectivity among disparate information management systems has become an essential aspect of conducting commerce. Such is the case whether the information management system is part of a supply chain, such as a retail establishment, a supplier, or a manufacturer, or the information management system must interact with another information management system. Although gains in connectivity between disparate systems have been made, deficiencies still exist.
Disparate information management systems often incorporate not only a wide variety of hardware platforms and operating systems, but also utilize a variety of disparate data storage and retrieval systems. Further complicating the problem, is that such systems, regardless of whether each system uses the same hardware/software solution, typically utilize different data structures to store information. Such data structure determinations are based upon an organization's need to store and retrieve specific data and particular attributes corresponding to that data. As these needs or business objectives vary among different entities, so too do the data structures used to store the data.
Another problem regarding communication between disparate information management systems is that naming conventions often vary significantly among these disparate systems. This results in identical data items being referenced by a different name from one system to the next. In consequence, efficient communication between such systems requires a translation from one naming convention to the another.
In an effort to overcome the aforementioned problems, some entities have altered their information management systems and the manner in which data is stored merely to ease data exchanges with other information management systems. This solution overlooks the fact that one method of organizing data may not be beneficial or desirable for other organizations having different business needs and objectives. Another solution has been to include a program or component within one's own information management system which can reconcile different naming conventions and attribute values between different systems, data sources, and databases. Implementation of this solution, as well as the previous solution, however, requires one entity to have knowledge of another entity's information management system. This knowledge is often extremely sensitive and confidential. Moreover, the inclusion of such a component within each information management system as part of a transactional chain can be redundant, as well as costly to develop and maintain.